Parts inventory reductions frustrate passengers
To those of us in the front seats, it looks like the Tilton regime has made a decision to try to save money by reducing parts inventories. All well and good, until a flight is delayed or canceled because we don’t have what we need to go. To the airline, this simply means that all of you are delayed to a later flight, miss a connection, miss a meeting, or the first part of your vacation. To you and to us, it’s the source of endless frustration.
Here’s the scene: A generator goes inoperative, or a cockpit seat is broken, or any one of thousands of other mechanical items break, often at a non-hub airport. We used to be able to call a mechanic and have them fix it, usually before you even board the plane. But now, all too often, we’re told that these same small breakdowns will cause a delay or a cancellation, because most parts aren’t stocked outside our hubs. So if we need a generator in Tampa, or a cockpit seat in Portland, we’re all grounded together until one can be flown in. Believe it or not, this nonsense goes on at our primary hubs, too!
There’s a difference between smart savings and dumb savings. This one falls on the wrong side of the ledger.
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United is being groomed for a sale or merger!!! I've seen it with smaller businesses. Reduce expenditures, inventory - even essential inventory and cut essential labor. It creates more cash-flow for the existing regime to support their ultimate goal of selling or merging the business.
It's too bad as United could be something special - the world's largest and best airline - give all of it's employees something to be proud of. However, with the history of labor problems between United and all of it's employees, i think that a merger/sale is a good idea - fresh start. Maybe it's best to let it happen and trust that a visionary can take the assets of United and leverage them into something special - A Leader with a dream!!! If the new regime is only about numbers then it's more of the same bullshit.
While pre-flighting my aircraft at a non-hub/intl. station I discovered a bad tire, excessively low pressure indicated on the guage. We had a local mechanic (non-UAL, but does our work there) come out to check it with a master guage to ensure it wasn't a faulty guage on our tire. In fact, we did have a bad tire. His check confirmed that our tire was indeed WELL BELOW the minimum required pressure.
"No sweat", I stated believing that they would be able to put a new tire on for us and we'd be on our way with little or no delay.
"Not so fast", I was told. This mechanic informed me that United had stopped stocking replacement tires at this station 6 months prior. No spares on hand and the other airline's on the field with similar models had incompatible wheel/tires for this UAL plane.
Result - SIGNIFICANT delay and inconvenience for my passengers and crew.
Failure to stock "consumables", oil/tires/filters/etc.
This is inconceivable at any company, let alone a major international carrier.